Beautiful! Ah, you had me on the edge of my seat. I loved it! Great job!

I was so afraid this would end badly but then it didn't and I'm so happy! This is WONDERFUL!

Alan did Die Hard! Amazing! :D I really loved that, and was so pleased that it ended well. It's exactly the kind of mad plan that IR could pull off that the ordinary emergency services just couldn't. It was really exciting, and unfurls brilliantly for the reader. Really well written and great characterisation as usual, excellent job

Great characterization, interactions, and teamwork. They keep each others promises. They also keep promises they make to each other as a team (as shown by Alan trusting that Scott will know if he's missing time, and that Scott won't over-react if he is).

That was a perfect little story. Bite-sized perfection. I liked it a lot.

This was my favourite of all the challenge entries; it filled the 'promise' criteria and
i felt both John's cool headedness and Alan's impetuous choice of action (This is something I've always wanted to try') very in character. I also liked the character of Katie, feeling very scared and vulnerable.
I did have one small niggle about why John should be communicating directly with Alan and not going through his Field Commander (you can't have two people issuing orders on a rescue) - maybe there should have a been a line of two explaining what Scott was doing that meant John had to to go to Alan direct.
But that aside, an excellent and very enjoyable story - well done!

The best thing about being cathrl is that there's no cathrl to come along and nitpick. Aren't you the lucky one?

Oh beautiful! But then again, I knew coming from you it would be. You've got everything in there - the urgency, the danger, the determination. And even the mixing in of modern technology.

You even made me like Alan (which when its OS Alan is a feat in itself!).

I loved how Alan signs autograph books with different names.

Cath, a story from you is like a breath of fresh air! This one, as all your stories are, was wonderful. I can see John sort of taking the lead on this part of the rescue. It sounds like a hairy one, Scott would have his hands full and with John using the cell phones and towers to locate people, he obviously has all the information at his fingertips as far as exactly where Katie is and the specifics of her situation since he spoke with her directly. Even though Scott is the Field Commander, it would seem counterproductive for John to relay the information to Scott simply so he could relay it to the rest of them just so they could say he followed the chain of comman. You've made it clear time is of the essence here, so even wasting just 15 seconds or so to get the information to Alan via Scott could literally be the difference between life and death for Katie - and possibly Alan.

Katie is a great OC. It's very easy for the reader to empathize with her and root for her to get out safely. And given the way this story started, with John wondering if he should have made that promise, I wasn't at all sure she'd make it out alive!

Really enjoyed the little touches of humor sprinkled throughout - my favorite was Alan signing his autograph as Fred Flintstone - this week! LOL!

Thanks for sharing this with us, Cath. I gonna go back and read it again!:-)

Making a promise when you know that something may go wrong and trying your best to keep it does make you wish that you haven't made that promise in the first place. Nice story.

I believe introducing a believable OC is so important in a story like this and Cathrl you did a great job with your OC character, Katie. I am still confused as to who dared a poor kid in a wheelchair to go where she wasn't supposed to be and why they didn't report her missing when the disaster struck (I'll slap 'em if I ever find out!) Irrespective her fear was very real and Katie's rescue was slick and well written. I just had one question as to why John seemed to be the central character co-ordinating the rescue and not Scott. Is this a TBAG story? LOL - the fact that I have to ask indicates I don't really know!

Awesome! Thanks for sharing.

I am still trying to figure out if this is a story aimed at the TBAG audience given its all about John giving the orders, rather than Scott being in control as the Field Commander. Great writing and Katie is a very real character - just disappointingly leaning towards John as the centre of the show.

I really enjoyed this :)
That clever method of using gps to check where people are and how many there are because who doesn't carry a phone around anymore? But then you addressed that it may not be exact. I love small details like that...
I also like how you wrote John being reassuring but at the same time relaying information and orders. Oh, and typical brothers all listening in on each other.

I'll stop here before I post a mini essay ;)
Loved it.

Very exciting rescue! So glad John's promise was kept! I loved the way you had John working with technology, using the GPS to count up the number of cell phones and having Katie take pictures of her location. Good, too, was remembering (even though you didn't specifically mention it) that Alan's got a good head for heights (from Attack of the Alligators).

Great story, cathrl. Hope to see more like it soon!